There is a moment when you notice that the rough rope ladder* of your scenario has become a raft and find, in a beat** of relief, that it will float (mixed metaphor I know - I re-watched the film Cast Away last night).

My cast are also prop makers, film makers, costume makers. FB messages and emails ping back and forward out of rehearsal hours with questions about size and colour and fabric and with solutions being offered to problems. Together we are weaving a cartoon web.

On the second trawl through characters are gaining more detail. The cast has become a company - understanding the physical language of the piece, taking the initiative and making offers, working as a physical chorus.

Below is an image of the company 'tired but happy', mid-way through putting together the - um - Duck sequence. Why a Duck? My good friend Wikipedia reminds me that Richard Anobile wrote book of that name (featuring a foreword by Groucho) which focused on the minutiae of the Marx Brothers' routines. Also, that: 'The duck is a recurring reference throughout the Marxes' and especially Groucho's career. His signature walk was called "the duck walk" and on Groucho's television program You Bet Your Life a stuffed duck made up to resemble Groucho would drop from the ceiling to give contestants money if they said the day's secret word. Ducks are the only animals that perform lines in the song "Everyone Says I Love You" in the Marx Brothers' fourth film, Horse Feathers. Their fifth film was called Duck Soup.

​I just rewatched the scene from the Marx Brothers' film The Cocoanuts where Chico persistently mishears viaduct as 'Why a Duck?' to which Groucho answers: 'I'm alright, how are you?' As Chico persists to ask the question, Groucho gives in, saying they are building a tunnel instead.

A viaduct is almost a rope bridge. We have a tunnel in the show. And, as it happens, we also have a life raft. As well as a number of ducks.

* Commedia dell'Arte Master Carlo Boso referred to the first draft of the scenario as a 'skeleton'. We have one of those in the show too.** its a very brief beat as there is so much else to do to put the 'meat' (sorry) on that skeleton.

​See here for other posts on the making of The Death of Fun.​And see the show's website which Patricia Woo (in the pink wig) has been creating.

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